Stakeholder engagement
To implement our strategy, we work with individuals and groups who are important to our business. Engaging these stakeholders helps us to understand their needs and expectations, and work together toward common goals.
The table below shows a summary of why and how we engage with our main stakeholder groups and the main issues discussed.
|
Patients and caregivers |
Customers |
Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
Objectives |
Identify unmet patient needs; ensure the long-term safety of our medicines; recognize patient perspectives and embed them into our decision-making in a consistent and systematic way. |
Explain the benefits and risks of our medicines; understand customer expectations and constraints on pricing and distribution; ensure a reliable supply of our medicines to patients. |
Continue to attract, develop and retain employees; develop new skills across the company; promote a corporate culture based on our values and behaviors; ensure a safe and healthy working environment. |
Approach |
Dedicated patient engagement teams; partner with patient organizations to address unmet needs; co-design clinical trials. |
Personalized contact with physicians through face-to-face visits and dedicated online platforms; scientific and medical congresses; discussions with healthcare systems on reimbursement and access to medicines. |
Townhalls and events; quarterly surveys to measure engagement and other aspects of our culture; health and well-being offerings; regular evaluation, training, and feedback. |
Main issues |
Elevating the voice of patients in healthcare systems; including patient perspectives in the lifecycle of our medicines to improve health outcomes. |
Sharing results from our clinical trials; efforts to optimize disease management; innovative contract structures such as outcome-based agreements; collaborations to improve patient access. |
Employee engagement; explaining our new organizational model; updates to our corporate strategy. |
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Shareholders |
Partners |
Policymakers |
Objectives |
Explain our strategy, performance and governance to shareholders and potential investors; ensure continued access to international capital markets for Novartis. |
Work with external researchers, partners and organizations to discover and develop new medicines; secure supplies we need for our business; improve access to medicines and support business growth. |
Maintain constructive dialogue with regulators; provide data on patient outcomes; ensure our views and interests are represented on issues affecting our industry. |
Approach |
Meetings with portfolio managers, stewardship teams and analysts; quarterly updates; press releases and disclosures; roadshows and presentations; continued focus on our largest 100 shareholders, who together represent 60% of our ownership. |
Network of alliances with industry, academia and non-governmental organizations; regular third-party risk assessments; face-to-face meetings and industry conferences. |
Dedicated public affairs teams; working with industry associations; meetings with regulators, governments, and other policymakers. |
Main issues |
Financial and operational performance; updates on our strategy; R&D pipeline progress; the healthcare policy environment; ESG strategy and progress. |
R&D partnering across our therapeutic areas and technology platforms; business development and licensing opportunities; standards on quality, ethics, environmental management and human rights in our supply chain. |
Advocacy supporting value-based healthcare; measures to support innovation in the life sciences; constraints on healthcare spending; our therapeutic areas and expanding access to our medicines. |
Patient engagement
Novartis has a longstanding commitment to respect and understand the perspective of patients throughout our business to ensure we meet their most critical needs.
Research shows that effective patient engagement leads to faster enrolment in clinical trials, increased patient retention and more efficient trial design – helping to streamline R&D and bring medicines to patients faster. Embedding patient insights into our commercial activities also leads to more successful launches and better patient adherence to treatments.
We have developed a five-point framework (see infographic below) to gather input – from early research through to post-launch – and we are making progress in consistently and systematically embedding patient insights into these key milestones. For example, in 2022 we obtained patient input in 87% of our early research programs and 37% of our clinical development programs (compared with 84% and 30% respectively, in 2021).
The broader industry is also moving to a more patient-centric model of healthcare, as companies and healthcare systems recognize the benefits of patient engagement and patients demand a greater say in their treatment. Healthcare regulators in the US, Europe and other countries recently issued guidelines on patient engagement, including recommendations on co-designing clinical trial endpoints with patients.
See "Our approach to clinical trials" for more information on our approach to clinical trials.
87%
Of Novartis research programs include insights collected directly from patients and their representatives
Five key milestones for patient engagement
